Posted in: Comics | Tagged: marvel, weapon x, x-men, X-ual Healing - The Weekly X-Men Recap Column

X-ual Healing: Sabretooth Makes a Friend in Weapon X #18

Published Mon, 28 May 2018 13:30:51 -0500

Sworn to sell comics for Marvel executives who feared and hated the fact that Fox owned their movie rights, The Uncanny X-Men suffered great indignities but with a corporate merger on the way, the X-Men can finally get back to doing what they do best: being objectively the best franchise in comics.

Each week, armed with the joy, heartbreak, and frustration of 30+ years of reading X-Men comics, we read every new X-book that comes out, recap the events, provide the historical context so you can read it on Marvel Unlimited, and wonder when Marvel will let Chris Claremont write something again.

It's the way X-Men comics were meant to be read! It's the column that can only be known as…

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WEAPON X #18
GREG PAK & FRED VAN LENTE (W)
YILDIRAY CINAR (A)
Cover by RAHZZAH
SABRETOOTH'S IN CHARGE Part 2
• It's Sabretooth's first mission as field leader!
• The team's first target? OMEGA RED!
• Can Sabretooth succeed where Logan failed?
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

This is the second issue of the Sabretooth's in Charge story arc, in which Sabretooth takes a job as caretaker of three children and… wait, no, that's the plot of 1980s sitcom Charles in Charge. In Sabretooth's in Charge, Old Man Logan makes Sabretooth field leader of the Weapon X team, and he royally screws up their first mission, using Warpath and Domino as bait to catch Omega Red, only to end up kidnapped by the Russian villain himself. You know what, he might have been better suited to the nanny job.

The issue opens in Siberia, with Omega Red dragging the captive Sabretooth through the snow. Omega Red plans to feed off his life force for a while. Sabretooth reflects back on his recent career developments, earning Logan's respect and the team leader gig but spiraling out of control with his violent urges. Back at the prison, the mutants Omega Red had been feeding off of are trying to kill Weapon X. Lady Deathstrike has a solution: slice them up with her claws. Warpath isn't having it though. These are innocent mutants being controlled by Omega Red. This is all Sabretooth's fault.

Speaking of which, Sabretooth is still being dragged through the snow. He does the first smart thing since taking this job and cuts his arm open, leaving a trail of blood for his team to follow. Omega Red has been talking to someone named Vasily in Russian as they travel. Sabretooth has noticed, as he happens to speak Russian, and he thinks something is wrong with Omega Red. Despite all the life force he's been draining from mutants, he's still weak. Sabretooth smells nanobots in Omega Red's blood. He tells him he knows what its like to be controlled. He offers to help, but Omega Red doesn't trust the X-Men. Their conversation is interrupted when Omega Red is attacked by some freaking tigers.

Eat your heart out, Westworld!

At the prison, Warpath is getting annoyed that the prisoners continue attacking them. As Omega Red gets further from the prison, the mutants regain their strength and begin to come to their senses. Warpath says they're safe with Omega Red away, but one of the prisoners points out that mutants are illegal in Russia, so they're not so safe after all. Deathstrike wants to go after Sabretooth, but Warpath wants to stay and help the mutants. He also wants Deathstrike to tell him who Sabretooth was scheming with on the phone last issue. She says it's a client with a job that will get them paid. Domino is into it. Warpath wants to stay and help the prisoners. When Domino chooses to split up and chase down Sabretooth, Warpath calls her and Deathstike mercenaries and says it's the end of the team. What a drama queen!

In the snow, Omega Red is being torn apart by tigers as Sabretooth makes his escape. But that old softee can't just leav Omega Red to die. He joins the fight, and they kick some tiger butt together. Omega Red is touched by Sabretooth's kindness. Sabretooth vows to help him with his nanobot problem. Omega Red gives him a pet kitty.

Sabretooth decides that maybe he's cut out to be an X-Man after all. The issue ends here, with these new best friends and their pet tiger hiking back to civlization.

The Bottom Line

Sabretooth and Omega Red vs a pack of tigers in the Siberian tundra? That right there is worth the price of the comic. Sabretooth and a pet tiger? Priceless. It doesn't matter what else happened this week; there's no way that this image…